“Second star to the right, then straight on until morning.”

Monthly Archives: May 2009

The annual Apple Bowl Sports Day arrived this afternoon and expectations were high for the return of TheTank, after his performance last year….

Having taken the 100m and the 200m last year in a spectacular fashion, he was determined to repeat the success, as well as do well in a few other events, being the fastest in his skool, throwing the furthest and jumping pretty high too.

It was a dodgy to begin with, although he won his heat easily, he got off to a bad start on the 100m final and couldn’t overtake the boy who was the winner, although he was right on his shoulder. The 200m was another question. With some coaching from his “Dad” he was fired up. “He’s not winning the next one. I am.”

And he did. By miles. He flew round.

A new event this year, the 800m. In the heat of the day, we thought it was going to be tough on the kids to do 2 laps of the track. He wasn’t going to enter, but when he saw all the other kids lining up he decided to give it a go. “Do NOT head out in front“, I told him. “The front man for the first lap very rarely wins this one. You must sit back a bit and wait for me to shout to you when you do the first lap, to start moving up. Do not sprint out on this one, you won’t make it.”

He did well for the first lap, sat back, in 3rd, moved up to 2nd as he crossed the line…. “Stay behind the front man! Stay behind him!“…. he did, for a bit and then on the back straight started speeding up, flying past the front runner.

“Too soon, he’s gone too soon!“, said his mum, as his arch rival from the 100m started closing on him…. “Run! He’s coming! Run! Keep going!”

Shouldn’t have worried, it was easy. The 800m was in the bag as well, he was miles ahead.

So, a good haul for him this year, which was good. He’s not all that academic, so a little bit of us wanted him to stand out for a change. 1st in the 200m, the 800m, 2nd in the 100m and the shot put, 3rd in the discus and 4th in the high jump. It gave his confidence a real boost, which is what we hoped for. Now he gets to pick one for the Olympics in 2012….

Next up for the spotlight, is Holly, in the school talent show. It’s time for her to shine on her own too. I couldn’t let her sing along to a CD or mime like the other kids, so I’m playing the guitar for her. She has to show what a great little singer she is, instead of being stuck at the back all the time. We’ve been rehearsing for the last couple of weeks and I think she’s got it nailed. Fingers crossed….

No longer our little man, he’s becoming a giant which might explain why there’s no food in the house, the day after the weekly shop! We went for a walk the other night and when he tried to put me in some kind of “grab”, I was almost under his armpit! Someone said he was going to hit 6′ 4″ and I’m inclined to agree with them at this juncture.

Senate Bill 787 will change federal jurisdiction over “navigable” water, to give the federal government control over all water everywhere, in municipal reservoirs, and on private lands, and in private wells. This bill ignores state water law authority and the Fifth Amendment.of the U.S. Constitution.

This effectively means the government owns every drop of the water.

Bearing in mind that the UN removed water as a human right, you might like to bear this in mind, when you collect the rain water for your garden and so on, as one gentleman in the US recently discovered….

What can I say? I find myself getting more and more fed up with the food you get from the shops. (… that’s the store, not the farmers market or the independent stores we go to….)

Bag’s of McCains fries…. tasteless. Sorry, they are. Straight from the oven, they seem to be OK, but is that ‘cos they’re hot? I had some the other day, after coming in, that had cooled a little and to be honest, I couldn’t finish ’em. They were simply tasteless. So, “why not make them like my gran used to?“, he thought. “from spuds, after washing and using a wavy chopping thing…. and then I’ve got my own organic chips/fries as opposed to these manky things!“….

They were so much better. Tossed and coated in oil and then baked in the oven. Simple. Had them with a nice salad and chicken kabobs. Only problem? Didn’t make enough. It won’t happen again.

In fact they were so much better, we’re having them for Sunday lunch too, with homemade/handpressed burgers….in

A friend gave us 7 canes from her mum’s garden now she has moved and we whacked ’em in smartish. I returned the one we bought from Home Depot, as, to be blunt, it was cr@p! It looked like a twig and it wasn’t looking like it was ever going to progress any further.

So, the beds up behind our little deck, look like this….

If you click the photo and go to the Flickr page, through the magic of the interweb, I’ve put some notes on the photo showing what’s where, but there is now raspberries, strawberries, courgettes, onions, carrots and tomatos all planted. Not all outside yet, it’s still getting cold at night.

Left looks up at the crops and right, down the hill to the house and looking out across the lake.

Plenty of books out from the library, on making beer and wine, so that’s next. Along with chickens….

The team have been doing pretty well so far. They drew their first match, although they were winning 2-1 after losing the entire game, only for the ref to overrun by almost 10 mins and the other team equalising. Oh well, that’s soccer I guess…

But the next match, in Kamloops, was a win, 5-1, with “The Tank” not scoring, but beautifully setting up his team mate on 3 occasions.

Then, last weekend, another 5-1 win. We were comfortably up by half time, so, looked good.

And then panic set in, as I turned to the missus and she uttered the dreaded phrase, “Oh no! Go and tell them, go on!”….

He’s been on about going in goal for ages and you could see as he called out to us from the other side of the pitch, cheeky grin on his face, that he was determined to give it a go. He’s good at being an ice hockey keeper, but a soccer goalie is not what he’s cut out for.

Luckily most of the action was up the other end, but he did make a couple of good saves and didn’t do too bad. But, it was the longest second half yet….

Unbeaten so far then, they seem to be getting a lot better as we go through the season. We’re looking forward to some rematches coming up over the next week, to avenge the IceBreaker Tournement we played a few weeks back….